Yahoo Inc has snapped up mobile news aggregator Summly, the latest in a string of small acquisitions intended to bolster the Web portal's mobile services.

Summly, founded by 17-year-old Nick D'Aloisio two years ago from his home in London, sorts news by topics in quick bites for smartphones. The start-up works closely with News Corp and is backed by Chinese investor Li Ka-Shing and angel investors including actor Ashton Kutcher and artist Yoko Ono.

Ponder:
Now, why would enormous media companies be interested in reducing articles, already in themselves short and inaccurate a great deal of the time, to just 100 word summaries? How many people do you think will actually click past the summaries to read more?

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Jung Seung-jo signed a joint contingency plan on Friday with the U.S. to respond to North Korean provocations. Since North Korea sank the Navy corvette Cheonan and shelled Yeonpyeong Island in 2010, Seoul and Washington have been discussing what coordinated response they could implement in the event of another North Korean attack.

They did not reveal details, but the response apparently includes South Korean forces handling the initial strike at the source of the provocation, followed by Seoul and Washington undertaking concerted steps in the second and third stages. Until now, the U.S. military was solely responsible for deciding on American military intervention in the event of a North Korean provocation, but from now on, the South Korean military will handle the initial response while the U.S. Seventh Fleet, including the aircraft carrier USS George Washington, will be mobilized along with Japanese F-22 fighter jets followed by the deployment of U.S. Marines to handle joint missions.

Last Friday, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un visited a special forces unit and ordered his elite soldiers to “strike at the heart of the enemy.” North Korea could launch a provocation when the South least expects it. Until North Korea sank the Cheonan in March of 2010, nobody even imagined the North’s submarines would target one of South Korea’s warships, and until it shelled Yeonpyong Island later that year, no one forecast that Pyongyang would lob artillery rounds at South Korean citizens.

The luck changed for Billy Ray Harris one day last month when the usual tinkling of coins being dropped into his beggar’s cup on a plaza in Kansas City was punctuated by a slightly heavier clunk. A few minutes later he looked inside and spied a woman’s engagement ring with a tidy-looking rock.

The first thought of a man begging to survive might have been to run to the nearest jewellery shop. And that is what Mr Harris did. But when he was offered $4,000 (£2,600), a better instinct took charge. He kept it in case the owner came back.

Thus began an urban fable that has captured the hearts of America. Whatever impelled Mr Harris to turn down the cash – he has attributed it to the pastor grandfather who raised him – he has been repaid. Six weeks later he has been reunited with long-lost siblings, he has a home, a job, and enough money to retire from begging.

A 47-year-old Detroit woman is recovering after an extreme addiction to tea.

Henry Ford Hospital Bone & Mineral Research Head Sudhaker Rao says the patient drank the equivalent of 100 cups of tea a day for 17 years. He says she lost all her teeth and doctors at first thought she had cancer, but as it turned out, she was suffering from a fluoride overdose.

“Among the beverages that contain fluoride, tea actually contains the highest amount of fluoride, however, it is a small quantity in each bag so we don’t drink that many. So if you overflow your system … the kidney is unable to excrete this load of fluoride from this many bags of tea,” said Rao.

Despite Americans' concerns about the domestic use of drones, California local agencies are reportedly moving forward with an application to declare a broad swath of Southern California a “drone zone” – an area to be used to test pilotless aircraft. The purpose: government stimulus.

In California, the San Diego Military Advisory Council (SDMAC) and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation (EDC) have filed an application with the Federal Aviation Administration to create a drone zone. These groups want to stimulate state drone business, even as the state raises its taxes repeatedly, driving out other business. Northrup Grumman, a major drone producer, has relocated branches of its unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program to Southern California. General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, which produces Predator drones, is located in Poway. The UAV industry in San Diego County clocks in at approximately $1.3 billion, and that number is growing fast.

Europe's onerous bailout deal for Cyprus has burnished Angela Merkel's reputation as a tough defender of German interests and removed one of the biggest threats to her re-election prospects half a year before voters go to the polls.

But the agreement, struck in the early morning hours of Monday in Brussels, comes at a price. It is likely to fan resentment in southern Europe over Germany's bitter reform medicine and may ultimately increase the risk of backsliding by a reluctant government in Nicosia.

The United States is urging the European Union to impose sanctions on North Korea's Foreign Trade Bank, which Washington believes helps finance North Korea's ballistic missile program, a U.S. State Department official said on Monday.

North Korea earlier this month threatened the United States with a pre-emptive nuclear strike as the United Nations Security Council tightened sanctions in response to Pyongyang's third nuclear test.

Cyprus' president says a bailout deal for the nation to stave off bankruptcy is "painful" but the best under the circumstances.

Nicos Nastasiades said the island will introduce some limits on transactions to prevent an outflow of money when its banks re-open this week but the measures will be "very temporary".

In a televised address to the nation, he said: "The central bank will implement capital controls on transactions. I want to assure you that this will be a very temporary measure that will gradually be relaxed".

A man who plotted to storm a Seattle military recruitment center with machine guns and grenades in retaliation for U.S. military conduct in Afghanistan was sentenced to 18 years in prison on Monday.

Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, also known as Joseph Anthony Davis, pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to murder officers and employees of the United States and conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction.

Passing sentence in District Court in Seattle, Judge James Robart also gave Abdul-Latif 10 years of supervised release. Under the terms of his plea deal with U.S. prosecutors, he faced a sentence of up to 17 to 19 years in prison.

A British man who allegedly used Facebook to make threats to kill 200 people in America is to face extra charges, a court has heard.

Reece Elliott, from Fossway, South Shields, South Tyneside, appeared before magistrates in the town, where his case was committed to the crown court.

The 24-year-old had originally been charged with making threats to kill and malicious communication after posts were made last month on a tribute page for a young American girl who died in a car crash.

At least 1000 dead ducks were found floating in a Chinese river, state media reported Monday, after Shanghai said it had almost finished recovering thousands of deceased pigs from its main waterway.

The ducks were fished out of a section of river by authorities in the southwestern Chinese province of Sichuan, the official Xinhua news agency said.

They were then buried in plastic bags three meters underground, the report added. It did not specify how the ducks had died.

The report came after Shanghai officials said a clean-up was close to ending after an embarrassing pollution case which saw dead pigs floating down the city's main river, with the total number recovered standing at more than 16,000.

Magnitude
4.6
Date-Time
Monday, March 25, 2013 at 16:58:26 UTC
Tuesday, March 26, 2013 at 04:58:26 AM at epicenter
Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones
Location
50.719°N, 160.182°E
Depth
10 km (6.2 miles) set by location program
Region
EAST OF THE KURIL ISLANDS
Distances
270 km (167 miles) ESE of Ozernovskiy, Russia

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the president of the eurogroup, said the relative market calm in recent months, coupled with the lack of market panic following the decision to force private investors and depositors to pay for the entire bailout of two large Cypriot banks, allowed the eurozone to go after private money more aggressively when banks fail.

“Taking away the risk from the financial sector and taking it on to the public shoulders is not the right approach,” Mr Dijsselbloem, who is also the Dutch finance minister, said in an interview with the Financial Times and Reuters hours after he finalised the controversial Cypriot programme.

“If we want to have a healthy, sound financial sector, the only way is to say: ‘Look, there where you take the risks, you must deal with them, and if you can’t deal with them you shouldn’t have taken them on and the consequence might be that it is end of story’,” he added. “That’s an approach that I think we, now that we are out of the heat of the crisis, should consequently take.”

Stocks fell on Monday as initial optimism over a bailout for Cyprus gave way to investor worries that the euro zone would shift the burden of aiding weak banks to depositors, bondholders and others instead of to governments and taxpayers.

The Cyprus deal was previously called a one-time solution to debt problems, but investors grew cautious after Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who heads the Eurogroup of euro zone finance ministers, told Reuters and the Financial Times that the Cyprus bailout deal could be a new template for resolving euro zone banking problems.

The Dutch finance minister said if banks needed restructuring and were unable, then euro zone officials would turn to shareholders, bondholders and uninsured depositors to contribute to a bank rescue.

Jordan closed its main border crossing with Syria on Monday after two days of fighting there between Syrian troops and rebel fighters, Jordan's information minister said.

Border traders said passengers were turned back at the Jordanian border crossing of Jaber and prevented from entering in the first such closure of the crossing since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad's rule started two years ago.

"The border post is effectively closed because there have been clashes since yesterday and they are continuing," minister Samih Maaytah told Reuters.

Colonel Riad al-Asaad, founder of the insurgent Free Syrian Army (FSA), had his leg severed by an explosion in rebel-controlled Syria in an apparent assassination attempt, opposition sources said on Monday.

His wounds were not life-threatening and he was now in hospital in Turkey, a Turkish official said.

The final deal to bail-out Cyprus' troubled banks may be a victory for the 'Troika' - the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - but the raid on depositors accounts and the prospect of capital controls are "deeply worrying" for the future of the Eurozone, says Jeremy Warner.

"It is the first time the Eurozone has required ordinary depositors to bail out banks and many stand to lose a lot of money.

"If they impose capital controls, you might as well say, as far as Cyprus is concerned, it is the end of the euro," Jeremy Warner said.

As talks to avert financial collapse in Cyprus went to the wire over the weekend, Archbishop Chrysostomos II urged politicians to spurn a punitive deal rather than relinquish the country's dignity.

“If the troika [of eurozone, IMF and ECB] is going to lead us into bankruptcy, it is better not to do any agreement and go directly to bankruptcy. At least we will save our dignity,” said the archbishop.

This was not a good weekend for Russian billionaires. First, Boris Berezovsky was found dead at his English country estate. Now, all the uninsured depositors (read: Russian plutocrats) at Cyprus’s two largest banks are going to be hit much, much harder than they feared they might be when the Cyprus crisis first erupted last week.

Back then — a long, long week ago — Cypriot president Nicos Anastasiades stood firm: there was no way he would allow uninsured depositors to lose more than 10% of their money. What a difference a week makes: now, if your uninsured deposits are at the Bank of Cyprus, you’re probably going to lose about 40% And if they’re at Laiki, you’re going to lose everything.

A military parade marking Greece's Independence Day has taken place, for a second straight year, amid a heavy police presence that barred onlookers from most of the route.

Armed forces units marched past Greece's president, ministers and other dignitaries in an otherwise empty Syntagma Square in central Athens to commemorate the Greeks' uprising against the Ottoman Empire in 1821. In a bow to austerity, no armored units took part and no planes flew over.

Heavy security has been the norm since a military parade in October 2010 in the northern city of Thessaloniki, commemorating Greece's entry into World War II, was disrupted by anti-austerity protesters. Politicians were insulted and were forced to flee the scene.

As part of the bailout deal, Cyprus agreed to restructure the two largest Cypriot banks as well as introduce a substantial levy on deposits above €100,000. Additionally, law makers last week passed legislation to impose capital controls to control deposit outflows from the banking system.

“These measures have already damaged the financial sector’s reputation and business model, and the system’s profile as an offshore financial centre is unlikely to survive this crisis. In spite of the global financial crisis, the sector has consistently made positive contributions to Cyprus’ growth,” Carlson said in a note.

“The potentially irreparable damage to the country’s current drivers of economic growth leaves its ability to sustain its current debt highly in doubt,” she noted.

She added that it is very unclear where future growth will come from, leaving the island nation vulnerable to shocks.

Cyprus's recovery from its bailout and bank restructuring is uncertain and it is too early to say when economic growth will return, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said on Monday.

"I am confident that the programme will work, but let's be honest. At this moment, we cannot say exactly what the impact is going to be," Barroso told a news conference. "It will depend on the level of implementation and the commitment of Cyprus itself," he said.

European leaders reached an agreement with Cyprus early on Monday morning that closes down the island's second-largest bank and inflicts huge losses on wealthy savers.

Those with deposits of less than €100,000 (£85,000) will be spared, but Russians with money in Cypriot banks will lose billions of euros under draconian terms aimed at preventing the Mediterranean tax haven becoming the first country forced out of the single currency.

The deal is expected to wreak lasting damage on the Cypriot economy, which has grown reliant on offshore banking and Russian money. Analysts said Cyprus could see its economy contract by 10% or more in the years ahead.

South Korea and the United States have signed a new military plan that lays out how the allies will communicate with each other and react to any future North Korean aggression.

The signing comes amid North Korean threats to attack the allies over their joint military drills and recent punishing U.N. sanctions aimed at Pyongyang's latest nuclear test.

Seoul's Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday that the plan is designed to counter a future limited attack by North Korea, but details weren't released. Work on the plan began after a North Korean artillery attack on a South Korean island in 2010 killed four.

Syrian rebels fired dozens of mortar bombs into central Damascus on Monday, hitting a high-security area within a kilometer (less than a mile) of President Bashar al-Assad's residence, residents and a security source said.

The military retaliated with artillery fire from Mount Qasioun, overlooking the Syrian capital. "I've heard dozens of regime shells so far, pounding rebels," one resident said.

It was some of the heaviest fighting in the heart of the city since an uprising against Assad erupted two years ago.

The bailout deal for Cyprus is deeply flawed. Some analysts say it is even worse than the original plan announced just over a week ago.

For sure, it will have serious knock-on effects, some of which will only become apparent over the coming weeks, months and years.

But it was probably the best that could be achieved in the desperate circumstances that followed the rejection of the original terms by the Cypriot parliament last week. And it has removed the immediate risk of a banking collapse and exit from the single currency.

The new proposal removes the most objectionable aspect of the first package – the levy on all depositors – making it less politically toxic. Money will instead be raised from rich depositors – those with savings of above €100,000 – and bondholders.

The Department of Homeland Security has plans to buy enough ammunition to fight the equivalent of a 24-year Iraq War – on US territory – and even US congressmen don’t understand why.

Smack in the middle of the smoking gun-control debate, and despite deep spending cuts across the American heartland, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) wants to buy 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the next five years.

Reports began surfacing in April, 2012 that the DHS, a government agency created in the aftermath of the attacks of September 11, 2001, had begun arming itself to the teeth. Now, several US congressmen are attempting to get some answers, but so far they have been greeted by a deafening silence.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Conservative Political Action Committee (CPAC), Congressman Timothy Huelscamp said the DHS has refused to answer questions from “multiple” members of Congress regarding the plans.

The $277million USS Guardian was originally painted grey, concealing the unusual material it is made of, but the waves which have lapped its sides have stripped the paint away and shown its true nature. Wood is used to construct minesweepers because some types of mines are designed to latch on to metal using magnets and detonate in the presence of metal ships. Moreover, the oak, Douglas fir and Alaska cedar used to construct the 225ft Guardian give it surprisingly good protection from bomb blasts.

Clashes between the Malian army and Islamists killed seven people including a soldier and two civilians Sunday in northern Mali's largest city, as Al-Qaeda's north African branch threatened to kill its French hostages.

The fighting in Gao took place as the Malian army carried out what it called a "clean-up" operation in Gao after Islamist militants from the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa (MUJAO) infiltrated the northeastern city and opened fire on an army camp overnight.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), an allied extremist group, for its part renewed a threat to kill its French hostages and called on their families to pressure France's government to end its military operation against radical Islamists who had seized control of northern Mali.

Murdered Meredith Kercher's sister has spoken of the ''unanswered questions'' surrounding the death ahead of today's final appeal.

Stephanie Kercher said she hoped for answers as Italian Supreme Court judges decide whether Amanda Knox and her former boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito should stand trial again or confirm their appeal hearing which saw them sensationally cleared of the brutal killing.

Meredith, 21, was found semi-naked and with her throat cut in her bedroom in the house she shared with fellow student Ms Knox and two other women in the town of Perugia.

At least 50 people have died of rabies in the recent weeks in a reported outbreak in the southwest district of Indonesia’s Maluku province, local officials said on Monday.

“Rabies has killed at least 50 people and hundreds of others have been infected by the virus,” Bernabas Orno said, adding that the outbreak has been reported to Maluku Governor Karel Albert Ralahalu.

The deadly virus has hit the remote province hard in recent weeks. The rabies virus is spread through contact with infected animals, who carry the virus in their saliva. Those bitten by an infected animal can avoid contracting the deadly disease if they clean the wound and receive a rabies vaccination within hours of contact.

People in China and other Asian countries are dying of rabies. But it’s not because dogs are biting them — it’s because they are biting dogs, eating 18-80 million a year just in China.

“Rabies is a major problem in China. The country’s Ministry of Health says it has the second highest rate in the world after India.” And it’s getting worse. Human rabies cases appear to be on the rise in China based on the most recent numbers available. “In 2007, there were 3,302 confirmed human rabies cases in China, nearly 21 times the number found from the entire period between 1990 and 1996.”

It’s not just eating the meat that causes rabies. Slaughtering, processing and cooking it may be even more dangerous. After a rabies outbreak led to human fatalities in Vietnam, government officials “reported that 70% of deaths were from dog bites but up to 30% were thought to be linked to exposure during slaughter or butchery.”

Phone calls have been flooding into City Hall with reports of sick or dead raccoons being found in neighborhoods. East Hudson Avenue is where the most calls have come from and people are definitely worried.

Carol Linville President of Pet Helpers said, "We have had over 38 calls, I've taken some for the city or citizens calling me directly. 99 percent of what we are dealing with is a distemper virus."

Linville said the disease is definitely an outbreak. It attacks the nervous system, sometimes causing seizures and unnatural behavior in animals, often mistaken for rabies.

"Droopy eyes, weaving, rocking, slow moving acting like kind of out of it, I often say it's like you've had too much to drink," said Linville.

A state of emergency has been declared in the Chelyabinsk region due to an outbreak of rabies among animals, the regional administration said in a statement.

In a decree posted on the administration's website, Ivan Feklin, the deputy governor of the region and head of the emergency response team for coordinating preventative measures for rabies, is tasked with confirming a complex set of measures to stabilize the region's rabies outbreak for the duration of the emergency regime.

The regional budget has allocated 2.44 million rubles ($78,000) for the purpose.

A teenager who allegedly killed and chopped up his mother has told police he did not like her, and wanted to know more about dissection.

The 19-year-old from Japan allegedly dismembered his mother's body in the bathroom, cutting her into at least 15 pieces using kitchen knives, the Sankei daily said on Saturday, citing unnamed police sources.

The teenager, who lived with his mother in a small apartment near Tokyo, then kept the body parts in the bathtub, which he filled with water, before starting to dump it piece by piece in plastic bags, the report said.

Al-Khatib will remain as head of the Syrian National Coalition until the group's next general meeting, Sanir Ahmed, Syrian National Coalition spokesman, told CNN. The executive committee rejected the resignation.

He "has taken the realm of the national coalition at a critical stage and he was able to garner great popularity and establish unity among ranks of the opposition. So he is to remain in his position for now," Ahmed said.

The recent financial troubles in Cyprus have attracted a range of alarming headlines around the world, but we must be careful to avoid panic and reckless measures that would exacerbate the crisis.

For in reality, Cyprus -- one of the smallest economies in the eurozone -- has a manageable fiscal deficit, low debt and until very recently a thriving economy, based on financial services and tourism. Large reserves of natural gas and possibly oil have been discovered off its southern coast, which would bring a bonanza in three to five years.

The roots of the crisis go back to 2006 when the Cyprus Popular Bank, the country's second biggest bank was taken over by a smaller Greek bank. The new owners invested very heavily in Greek bonds and loans but kept it as a Cypriot bank, instead of transferring the HQ to Greece. This was because of the better corporate environment in Cyprus, where tax rates are just 10%, compared to Greece where it is at least double that.

What does this tell us about the European project though? Is the eurozone a partnership of equals who care about each other's subjects? Or is it a vehicle for scoring political points by the strong and powerful?

Timothy Dluhos, who works for the Fire Department of New York, made posts calling Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who is Jewish, 'King Heeb,' referring to black people as 'coloreds' and calling Asians 'chinks.' He also tweeted that his most prized possession is Nazi gold pin with a German U-Boat and a swastika. 'My life is ruined. Oh, my God, I'm so sorry,' he cried as he broke down in tears, the New York Post reports.

New York City has been hit with a bacterial meningitis outbreak with 22 people infected so far, according to city health officials who are urging promiscuous gay men to get vaccinated against infection.

The dangerous strain of the disease which causes an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord appears to be spreading through sexual encounters between men who meet up online and at bars and parties, according to a news release from the city’s health department.

‘Vaccination is the best defense,’ City Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said in the release.

Police sprayed tear gas at protesters (inset) as hundreds charged towards the centre of Paris during the protest against a draft law allowing same-sex couples to adopt and marry. About 300,000 people - conservative activists, children and priests - took part to stop the bill. Christine Boutin, leader of the French Christian Democratic Party, was pictured lying on the ground in the Champs-Elysees, after being tear-gassed by police during the demonstration.

An EU spokesman said no across-the-board levy or tax would be imposed on deposits in Cypriot banks, although the hit on large account holders in the two biggest banks is likely to be far greater than initially planned. A first attempt at a deal last week collapsed when the Cypriot parliament rejected a proposed levy on all deposits.

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said lawmakers would not need to vote on the new scheme, since they had already enacted a law setting procedures for bank resolution.

"It can't be done without a bail-in in both banks... This is bitter for Cyprus but we now have the result that the (German) government always stood up for," Schaeuble told reporters, saying he was sure the German parliament would approve.

An explosion has occurred outside of a Bank of Cyprus branch in Limassol, according to sources enikos.gr and SigmaLive.

The blast was caused by an "improvised explosive device," according to an English translation of the SigmaLive report. A YouTube video available from NewsitCy Cyprus, available above, appears to show the aftermath of the explosion.

Per an initial Google translation of the enikos.gr article, "the blast destroyed the window of a branch of the Bank and created small fire which katasvistike from the Fire. The area has been blocked by the Cypriot police." The enikos.gr story also reports an additional explosion.

A swarm of bees attacked three workers at a golf course in Costa Mesa, authorities said Sunday.

Responding firefighters used foam to disperse the bees that attacked the workers who were suspended in a lift about 40 to 50 feet above the ground to work on a tower, according to the fire department. The incident occurred at about 2:30 p.m.

The workers suffered multiple bee stings. They were treated and taken to a hospital.

Nearly a hundred devotees who had been to Gadaikallu hill on Sunday March 24 to offer prayers in observance of the Lenten season were stung by bees. Among them about 80 were injured, more than 8 of them seriously.

Sources said after the incident, the injured spent a harrowing time on the hill awaiting help for more than four hours.

David Cameron is set to announce tough new measures to curb immigrants' access to housing and benefits, in an attempt to tackle the "something for nothing" welfare culture.

The Prime Minister will use a keynote speech today to warn those coming to the country that Britain will no longer be taking a "soft touch" approach to immigration.

From next year, arrivals from the European Union will be stripped of jobseekers benefits after six months(there isn't ONE country in Europe that pays benefits to immigrant arrivals, except for the UK)unless they can prove they have been actively looking for a job and stand a "genuine chance" of finding one.